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Sunday, February 6, 2011

Pre-RootsTech Reflections on New FamilySearch

It has been a while since I made any comments on New FamilySearch. This does not mean that the controversy has diminished in the least, but it does mean that little has changed on the New.FamilySearch.org website over the past couple of months. As a site to qualify names for ordinance work in the temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it performs admirably. It is, on the other hand, controversial in its value as a research tool and it is definitely not a good source of reliable genealogical information. As I set out for RootsTech this week, I assume that I will hear something about the program if I listen carefully. But I thought a summary of my pre-conference impressions would be helpful.

First, I will give an example of the problem and challenges of the program starting with William Tanner (abt 1660 - abt 1735) of Rhode Island. I chose him because of my page by page research of the early Rhode Island town records concerning him and his descendants. My research to date leaves open some obvious questions. When did he arrive in Rhode Island? Which of the various "William Tanners" shown on early immigration and passenger list records is my ancestor? Since his arrival in Rhode Island is still undocumented in any source or record I have yet seen, there is no way to connect him to the various William Tanners listed in the passenger lists and therefore connect him with any of the William Tanners listed in England about the same time. The earliest record is the The Record of the Proprietors of Narrangansett. Otherwise Called the Fones Record, Arnold, James N., Editor of the Narrangansett Historical Register, Compiler, Rhode Island Colonial Gleanings, n.d. 974.5 R2 Mesa Regional Family History Center., 41 S. Hobson, Mesa, Arizona 85204 USA. At the bottom of this post I have listed my present list of sources of William Tanner and his family. By the way, if you have any additional information, please let me know. I still have an extensive list of sources to search.The Fones Record list William Tanner of Rhode Island as the witness to a will.

Now, let's have a look at what is recorded in New FamilySearch. Since this will undoubtedly be one of my longest posts ever, I will have to condense some of the issues and leave out a few screen shots in the interest of not turning this into a book. I will also skip all of the extraneous material in the New FamilySearch file in between me and my ancestor William Tanner. Here is the first level of information in the file on William Tanner:

Let's just say that the entry for William Tanner has almost 80 different birth dates and places from 1657 in various places in England to 1682 in Rhode Island. There are at least eight different places in England listed with one in Wales. This is not at all helpful. Looking at the individual sources for William Tanner are even less help. The Fones Record which is the earliest source is not listed. As to his death and burial, I have personally visited his gravesite located His burial location has also been reported to be Usequepaugh, Kent, Rhode Island. He is actually buried at the Laurel Country Club, 309 Laurel Lane, West Kingston, Rhode Island off of the 3rd tee.

Who could possibly sort out the mass of confusion in the New FamilySearch record for William Tanner? But wait, let's go back a couple of generations. I mentioned above that I have yet seen one documentary source identifying William Tanner with any one of the possible immigrants in that time period with the same name. I do have my opinion, but that is not the point. In New FamilySearch he is listed with 13 different wives one of which is identified as "Living." She must be the oldest human ever documented. Despite the fact that there is no documentation as to William Tanner's birth in England or where ever, there are more than thirteen generations of William Tanners shown as ancestors of the William Tanner in Rhode Island. I finally stopped clicking on the links back. Each of the William Tanners have their own Person Identifier Number which is in addition to the 150 combined records of the original. There are hundreds (perhaps thousands) of entries identified as ancestors of the original William Tanner.

There is no connection between what is shown in the program and anything approaching reality. Further, there is not even a hint that there is any way to solve this problem of historic proportions. For example, all of the supposed ancestors of William Tanner should simply be erased from the database. They do not exist. If by some rare chance, one of them or more is an actual documented ancestor, then there should be some way to show the sources of how that conclusion was reached. As a side note, many of these bogus ancestors show availability for Temple ordinances.

Here is a list of the main issues:
1. There is no way to correct this mess and weed out the duplicates.
2. There is no way to adequately document the sources, if any.
3. There is no way to stop even more confusion.
These are the same issues I have had since shortly after the program was introduced.

Now, what happens when and if New FamilySearch is opened to the general public and added as a menu item to the FamilySearch.org website? That is the question.

How will the FamilySearch.org website be viewed as a an authority when it will contain the mess of information in New FamilySearch which violates almost every possible guideline or instruction given on how to do genealogy?

This is my request: Give me some way to correct the pedigree information and supply real source information and I will do so. Let's hope that I hear something promising in Salt Lake this next week.

Arnold, James N., Vital record of Rhode Island, 1636-1850, first series, births, marriages and deaths : a family register for the people, (6 vols.), "Published under the auspices of the General Assembly." Providence, Rhode Island, Narragansett Historical Publishing Company, 1894.

Austin, John Osborne, Ancestry of Thirty-Three Rhode Islanders (Born in the Eighteenth Century) also Twenty-Seven Charts of Roger Williams’ Descendants to the Fifth Generation, and an Account of Lewis Latham, Falconer to King Charles I, with a Chart of His American Descendants to the Fourth Generation and a List of 180 Existing Portraits of Rhode Island Governors, Chief Justices, Senators etc. and of Certain Military Officers, Divines, Physicians, Authors, Lawyers, Merchants, etc. (Albany, New York, Joel Munsell’s Sons, 1889).

Coldham, Peter Wilson, The Complete Book of Emigrants: A Comprehensive Listing Compiled from English Public Records of Those Who Took Ship to the Americas for Political, Religious, and Economic Reasons; of Those Who Were Deported for Vagrancy, Roguery, or Non-Conformity; and of Those Who Were Sold to Labour in the New Colonies. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co. 1661-1699. 1990. 894p, Ancestry.com.

Cole, J. R., History of Washington and Kent Counties, Rhode Island including Their Early Settlement and Progress to the Present time; A Description of Their Historic and Interesting Localities; Sketches of Their Towns and Villages; Portraits of Some of Their Prominent Men, and Biographies of Many of Their Representative Citizens, New York, W.W. Preston Co., 1889 [Facsimile Reprint: Higginson Book Company, 148 Washington Street, P.O. Box 778, Salem, Massachusetts 01970, 508-745-7170].

Comstock, Charles and William Davis Miller, A History of South-Kingstown, with a particular description of the Hornet's Nest company and the cats let out of the bag, Reprint of the 1806 edition published in Newport, R.I., Kingston, Rhode Island : [s.n.], 1934, Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1988, FHL US/CAN Fiche 6048173 Fiche 1.

Cowell, Benjamin, Spirit of ’76 in Rhode Island, with Cowell’s “Spirit of ‘76” An Analytical and Explanatory Index, by James N. Arnold, Baltimore, Maryland, Genealogical Publishing Inc., 1973 [Originally published as “Spirit of ’76 in Rhode Island, or, Sketches of the Efforts of the Government and the People, in the War of the Revolution, Together with the Names of Those who belonged to Rhode Island Regiments in the Army, with Biographical Notices, Reminiscences Etc. Etc. by Benjamin Cowell, Boston, Massachusetts, A. J. Wright, Printer, No. 3 Water Street, 1850].

Denison, Frederic, Westerly and its witnesses : for two hundred and fifty years, 1626-1876; including Charlestown, Hopkinton, and Richmond, until their separate organization, with the principal points of their subsequent history, Providence [Rhode Island] : J.A. Reid & R.A. Reid, 1878, Also on microfilm: Salt Lake City: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1976, FHL US/CAN Film 928181 Item 11.

Potter, Elisha R., The early history of Narragansett : with an appendix of original documents, many of which are now for the first time published, Ann Arbor, Michigan : University Microfilms, 1987, [Microreproduction of original published: Providence : Marshall, Brown & Co., 1935. (Providence : Printed by E.A. Marshall). xix, 423].

Representative men & old families of Rhode Island, genealogical records and historical sketches of prominent and representative citizens and of many of the old families Chicago, Illinois, J.H. Beers & Co., 1908.

Sons of the American Revolution, Manual of the Rhode Island Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, 1900 – 1910 Inclusive, Providence, Rhode Island, Published by The Sons of the American Revolution, E.A. Johnson & Company, 1911.

Tanner, Elias, Reverend, The Genealogy of the Descendants of Thomas Tanner, Sr. of Cornwall, Connecticut, with Brief Notes of Several Allied Families, also Short Sketches of Several Towns of their Early Residence. Lansing, Michigan, Darius D. Thorp, Printer and Binder, 1893.

Tanner, George C., Reverend, William Tanner of South Kingston and his Descendants, Faribault, Minnesota (Self Published, 1910).

Tanner, George C., Reverend, William Tanner of South Kingston and his Descendants, Faribault, Minnesota (Self Published, 1905).

Tanner, George Shepherd, John Tanner and his Family, Salt Lake City, Utah; The John Tanner Family Association; 1974.

Tanner, Maurice, Descendants of John Tanner, Born August 15, 1778, at Hopkintown, R. I. Died April 15, 1850 at South Cottonwood, Salt Lake County, Utah, The Tanner Family Association, 1942.

United States Constitution Sesquicentennial Commission, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the time of the ratification of the Constitution from 1777 and 1795 Originals in the Library of Congress at Washington, [reprinted, 1936 by U.S. Geological Survey, Original Engraved and Printed for Wm Feden, Charing Cross, July 22, 1777].

Virkus, Frederick Adams, The abridged compendium of American genealogy: first families of America : a genealogical encyclopedia of the United States, Baltimore, Maryland; Genealogical Publishing, 1968 [Chicago, Illinois, A. N. Marquis, Virkus Company and Institute of American Genealogy], 1925-1942, 7 v.

3 comments:

What you want is pretty much what I heard from the Fa milySearch team in October at the Blogger Day. They will open up the entire tree to anybody and let conclusion based source-centric research to be added.

It will likely be messy! In the end, it will probably work if enough dedicated researchers participate.

Please write about what you hear at RootsTech on this! Have fun...I'm missing it due to a prior speaking commitment.

James, this is yet another useful and succinct post. I would have appreciated just a tad more detail concerning why/how you cannot make pertinent deletions/corrections. Is it because the original submitters of the birth dates or pedigree assertions are anonymous and/or deceased (or for other reasons cannot be contacted)? Or because there is a requirement to submit evidence that the submissions lacking evidence are incorrect? Other factors?

I understand that New FamilySearch will someday allow sources and provide links to the records in FamilySearch (and possibly elsewhere?). Of course that was "someday," but hope it is soon. This would definitely help. However, I have found sources disproving long-held beliefs, and some extended cousins still don't want to believe it. That is another hurdle - changing minds as well.